The present disclosure relates to compounds known as tetrahydrotetrazaacenes, and derivatives thereof. These acenes are particularly useful as semiconductors in electronic devices, such as thin-film transistors. These acenes have improved performance characteristics.
Thin film transistors (TFTs) are fundamental components in modern-age electronics, including, for example, sensors, image scanners, memory devices, radio frequency identification tags, and electronic display devices. It is usually desired to make TFTs which have not only much lower manufacturing costs, but also appealing mechanical properties such as being physically compact, lightweight, flexible, and having enhanced performance characteristics. Organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) promise the above desired benefits.
OTFTs are generally composed of a supporting substrate, three electrically conductive electrodes (gate, source and drain electrodes), a channel semiconducting layer, and an electrically insulating gate dielectric layer separating the gate electrode from the semiconducting layer.
It is desirable to improve the performance of known OTFTs. One measure of performance is the charge carrier mobility of the semiconducting layer. The mobility is measured in units of cm2/V·sec; higher mobility is desired.
Most small organic semiconductors with high field-effect mobility are based on pentacene. However, pentacene has poor solubility, requiring an expensive high vacuum deposition process to be used. Soluble pentacene derivatives are prone to oxidation in solution when exposed to air, preventing device fabrication from solution in ambient conditions. There is a need to develop new technologies to dramatically improve the mobility for broad applications.